A Darker Divide
by Vergil Diva's chevalier
Summary: The Sanderson house, as well as the sisters and the children they seek are confronted with a new horrific threat. They must decide how they will attempt to survive this nightmare; on their own or together. M for possible gore and language later on.
1. A graver threat

Magic was in the air at the old Sanderson house in Salem, Massachusetts. Unfortunately, it was the kind of magic that should never be used even by those with the purest of intentions, and Winifred Sanderson was not possessed of anything so kind-hearted. Her sisters Mary and Sarah assisted her in concocting a potion as their captive, Dani, struggled against her restraints. The young girl's guardian Binx, an immortal talking cat with the spirit of one of the sisters' past victims was trapped in a bag near the fireplace. The potion which the sisters were brewing would transfer the life force of Dani into all of them, allowing the trio to remain young and, more importantly, would keep them alive past tonight.

Long ago, in the 17th century, the Sanderson sisters were infamous witches who lived in the woods outside the town of Salem. As they grew older Winifred, the brains of the family, began to search for a way to restore their, or more specifically, her own youth. Within a terrible spell book she discovered such a means; a potion which, when drunk by a virgin or small child, allowed his or her life force to be inhaled by the sisters. When at last the sisters succeeded in taking enough life force to restore their youth the brother of their victim, Thackery Binx, was transformed into a black cat to live forever with the guilt of failing to save his sister, Emily. Shortly after the transformation the sisters were captured and hung, but legend told that when the Black Flame Candle in their house was lit by a virgin on Halloween night that they would return. The sisters would have one night to brew the potion and suck the life force out of a child, after which they could continue doing so to prolong their youth. If they did not consume life force by the time the sun came up, they would die.

Sunrise was less than an hour away, but they had both the potion and a child. The atmosphere of their ancient, dreary and somewhat frightening abode was abuzz with excitement and fear. The sisters could barely contain their excitement at being successful in their gambit to survive the night when death had seemed so certain and so close. Dani, meanwhile, was aware of what would happen to her and Binx was terrified of letting another young girl with whom he had built a connection have her future stolen away by the evil sisters.

The house flashed and permeated with green light as Winifred finished the potion and the sisters gathered around the cauldron. Their skin was aglow both with their anticipation and the eerie radiance of the concoction. They dipped a large wooden spoon into the cauldron and then Winifred drew it out, advancing on Dani. Her younger siblings, acting little more than minions, tried to open the young girl's mouth.

"Don't drink it, Dani!" Binx warned, to which Winifred responded "Shut up, you!" and jabbed the potion-filled spoon in front of the young girl's face. Despite struggling to keep her mouth closed, Dani managed to knock Mary's large elbow with the hard wood of the chair. Sarah began to laugh when Dani kicked her in the shin and caused her to cry out in pain. Upon recovering both witches grabbed at the girl's mouth with renewed vigor.

Just as it seemed Dani's mouth would be forced open the door to the house flew inwards and her elder brother, Max, rushed into the building. "Prepare to die… _again_." He told them, eliciting little more than a laugh from Sarah. From the hanging gibbets two imprisoned male teenagers sat, instantly brightening as they saw the familiar face. "Hollywood!" The blonde in the leather jacket spoke, referencing Max's having moved to Salem from Los Angeles.

"_You_! You have no powers here, you fool!" Winifred retorted, having grown tired of his outwitting them time and again. "Maybe not…" Max spoke loudly. "But there's a power greater than your magic, and that's knowledge. And there's one thing I know that you _don't_."

With an irritated sigh Winifred momentarily stopped trying to feed Dani the potion. "And what is that _dude_?" She spoke mockingly at which Sarah began laughing. "Daylight savings time." Max spoke confidently. All three of the witches seemed amused by his petty statement and Mary repeated his sentence with a sardonic voice. The witches' mocking ended, however, when a pastel pink light shone into the house, and their smiles disappeared. Winifred gazed at the impossible thing, as if it represented fear itself. All three of the sisters recoiled from it, drawing behind the cauldron as they shielded themselves from the uncompromising illumination. Max grinned in victory and ran over to the chair Dani was tied into in order to free her.

The sisters began to drop to the floor, already feeling the magic leaving them at the emergence of dawn. Dani bolted from the chair and together with Max, they freed Binx. Max glanced back and saw Sarah speaking "It hurts!" in agony before she fell as well, the last of the three to do so.

Max began to turn for the door when the blonde teenager called out to him again "Man, get me out of here!" Max seemed to hesitate, gazing at the two who had, less than a day ago, bullied him and had taken his shoes. "Hollywood!" The other one said, a bigger guy with "Ice" shaved into the hair on the back of his head. "Help us out." The young man nodded his head nervously, as if hoping it would help Max's decision. Their hopes were extinguished, however, when Max simply took his shoes back and said "Tubular" to mock them before heading towards the door with Dani. The siblings ran to the exit of the house but Dani stopped on the way there. "Max! I want to see her turn to dust!" She spoke in hatred for Winifred. However, not a moment after she'd spoken the young girl caught sight of the truck outside, its headlights shining into the house through colored paper. "Pump it!" She shouted before running with them to the car where Allison waited. The teenage girl had been whistling for them to come out and her breath had finally failed her as Max and Dani began to get into the truck. They had escaped, for now. The witches would soon realize that they had merely been tricked, but until then they could use that time to get to the cemetery where it would be more difficult for the sisters to- they heard a moan. No, it wasn't that simple; there was something else to it.

"What _is _that?" Allison requested as the voice repeated. It sounded sleepy, as if someone had just awoken after staying up late. They heard it coming from the forest, but could not tell from which direction it came. The wind blew, causing the leaves to tremble as the air grew cold, and a foul smell wafted over them. The humans covered their mouths and noses as Binx tried to ignore it and focus on where the sound was coming from. He knew that smell; it was the stench of death. Was it Billy Butcherson, the man Winifred had revived from the dead to chase after them? No, his mouth had been sown shut, and it didn't sound like him. Then _who _could it _be_?

"Max, we have to get out of here before the witches get up!" Dani told him, getting in the truck. "You're right, Allison get in." Dani moved over to allow Allison to enter, but as she did someone stumbled out of the forest. His clothes were heavily faded, and his skin was pale. His hair lay matted upon his head and he stood with a slouch. It was as if someone had left him in a cramped dumpster full of sewage. His eyes, though, were the most terrifying aspects about him; they didn't see. The group of adolescents saw his eyes moving about, as if scanning for something, but the milky white orbs didn't seem to register anything they spotted. He looked dead.

The man caught sight of Allison, and he moaned louder as he began to limp towards her, his arms outstretched. The teenager didn't know what to do; should she help him or get in the truck so that they could run away? The decision was too hard to make and by the time she had decided, he was upon her, bashing the girl into the side of the truck. His blistered hands grasped at her shoulders through her sweater as she tried in vain to push him away. The rot that permeated from him was breathed onto her face from his decaying mouth as he bit at her.

"Get off of her!" Max yelled as he got out of the truck and began to run around it to help her. "Max, help me!" She pleaded as her strength began to fade. Stinking drool dripped from his mouth onto her shirt as his teeth grew ever closer. Just as they began to rake against her skin Max grabbed the man from behind and threw both himself and the psychopath to the ground. Allison leaned against the truck, holding the area of her neck that the man had almost bit into. Max started to get up from the ground, but their attacker was quicker, moving with the instinct and ferocity of an animal. He lunged onto Max, but the teenager managed to get his feet under his assailant and pushed him away. Stumbling, the psychotic man reared around and started towards Max again. Once more he began to raise his feet, but they got caught on a root and he could do nothing but raise his arms to defend himself as the cannibal drew closer.

The air filled with electricity, arcing in impossible patterns through the early morning air before the murderous man stiffened and fell to the ground, now looking even more lifeless than he had before. Behind him, standing in the doorway, was Winifred Sanderson smiling evilly.

"Now that our little interruption has been silenced, prepare to meet thy doom!" She declared, her sisters drawing up behind her. The witches' control of the situation did not last long, however, before more moans echoed from the forest, this time from all sides. Max swallowed as he stood up and looked about the clearing. In the woods trees seemed to move, swaying about. It took a few moments before he realized, to his horror, that they weren't trees. Allison seemed shut off to the world as Dani peered out from inside the truck and caught sight of one entering the clearing. "Over there!" She yelled, pointing at the figure.

Winifred scowled and walked down the steps of the house and into the clearing. She raised her hands into the air and electricity erupted from her fingertips, shocking the recently-emerged form and stilling it as she had done the other. As it fell, though, two more entered from behind it, and as the focus fell upon the road nearby everyone spotted an approaching mob numbering in the dozens. "What are they?" Dani yelled as Winifred drew back from the edge of the clearing. "Such fiends; they are scuttling out like a pack of rats!" Winifred remarked. The group's attention was drawn back to the house as Sarah shouted, recoiling from the cannibal who had risen from his place on the ground. "Uh, Winny?" Mary called after their sister as the two drew into the house. Winifred marched towards the figure and electrified it again, this time making him smoke before he fell to the ground.

Their previous plight momentarily forgotten, Binx shouted for everyone to get inside the house as yet more shapes began to wander out of the woods. Max began to run towards the house but noticed that Allison had not moved, he grabbed her hand and led the dumbstruck teenager towards the steps as Dani and Binx did the same. Their gazes drew down as Winifred repeatedly shocked the original attacker who was still trying to rise. Smoke rose from his charred body but his moaning and groaning never once ceased.

"Winny!" Sarah called after her sister, causing the eldest to look about the clearing and see far more approaching bodies than she would be able to deal with. She nudged the downed person with her shoe, pushing him into the bushes before marching up the steps and into the house, where her sisters closed the door behind her.

"What's going on here?" Max demanded of them as Mary placed a long plank of wood in the catches on either side of the door. "What did you do?"

"Don't get your knickers in a twist! This is not my magic!"

The hungry calls of the gathering mob outside the house wafted in through the tiny cracks of the building as Sarah clung to her larger sister, Mary. "Is there a spell in that book that can stop them?" Binx requested. "The dead raised by the spells in my book are not so barbaric, as I informed you buffoons, it is not my doing." As Max began to make more allegations, Allison seemed to return to the world and grabbed his shoulder. "They're zombies!" She told him, causing the group to grow quiet. "These… things aren't the voodoo servants from old legends; they're undead, cannibalistic creatures from modern zombie films. There might not be _anyone _responsible for them."

"Then what are we going to do? We can't just stay here forever and hope they'll go away." Max responded.

"In the movies they usually stayed dead if you destroyed their brains, but I don't even know if that would work. Besides, we don't have a way to do that."

"So-" Max cut himself off as he realized the sisters were no longer near the door. "Where did they go?" The group looked around before hearing the sisters squabbling upstairs. As they walked towards the steps they caught sight of Mary holding the long wooden spoon used for the cauldron and poking it out the window. "It won't reach." Mary told Winifred. "Give that to me! You're not doing it right!" The eldest sister snatched the object from Mary's grasp and began jabbing at the zombies' heads down below. Binx narrowed his eyes, finding it difficult to remember how these witches could be so threatening. "Is there any possibility that will work?" He asked Allison, to which she replied "Not a chance."

Winifred glanced down at them and then scowled, snapping her head back at her youngest sister. "Sarah! I told you to keep them busy!" She scolded. "Keep who busy?" Sarah asked with genuine curiosity. Winifred sighed at the futility of her attacks on the undead as well as Sarah's prevalent stupidity and drew the spoon back inside the house. "So be it. I will have to find _another _way to dispatch them." She thrust the spoon back into Mary's hands and stomped off.

Shaking their heads, the group down below walked back to the main area and got some dusty, cobwebbed chairs to sit on as they thought of what to do. "There isn't any way that we're getting out of here without having to destroy at least some of them." Binx explained. "Since we don't know how long they will wait for us outside we can't simply be patient and wait this out. And let's not forget, the witches upstairs still have not used their potion; they will be desperate to obtain life force before the sun comes up, which will not be long now."

Max looked at the cauldron and the glowing green potion within it. If he hadn't already been weighed down by the gravity of the situation he probably would have tipped it over. Still, as he gazed into the green pool within he couldn't help but think they'd forgotten about something.

"Come on, man! Let us out! What's going on out there?" One of the imprisoned teenagers spoke, apparently having run out of patience. Everyone gazed up at them and eventually it was decided that they should let the jerks out; in a situation like this you needed all the people you could possibly have to help. They opened the gibbets and let the two fall out of their cages onto the dusty floor, coughing as they inhaled some of it. "What- *cough* what is going on out there, man?" The long-haired one asked. "Zombies; they've risen from the dead and they've surrounded the house." Allison explained. The same guy, a blonde guy named Jay, laughed as he started to get up.

"Yeah, right."

When no one said anything by the time he had righted himself the teenager began to doubt his initial cynicism. "You're kidding, right?" He asked, to which Allison responded by nodding towards a window.

"See for yourself."

Jay and Ice fought to get in front of the window before they decided to get their own and saw with their own eyes that what Allison had said was the truth. Jay backed away from his window, pushing his hands through his hair. "Whoa, man, this is heavy." He spoke in disbelief. Ice continued to look until a charred hand smacked on the glass and grasped against it, causing him to recoil. The hand drew back and struck against the window. With a pop it fell off and both Ice and the zombie looked at the area its hand had been attached to before it seemed to grow angry and sneered at him.

"Holy crap!"

"Told you."

Jay walked over to the group of sitting people in the middle of the room. "Alright, so what are we gonna do here, man? I mean, you've gotta have like a… like a _plan _or something!"

"There weren't that many zombies gathering outside my house in Los Angeles." Max retorted.

"Well we can't just stay in here with those freaky witches, dude!"

On the second floor they heard Winifred curse and stomp, shaking dust from the ceiling down onto Jay's head and causing him to cough once more. Max began to put his old pair of shoes on that he'd taken from Ice, which the larger teenager noticed. "Hey!" Max finished tying the shoes and tossed him the used pair he'd been wearing during the night.

"Alright, then we just wait here until they go away, right?" Jay asked.

"We can't do that, who knows how long they'll wait outside for us?" Binx responded.

Jay stared at him wide-eyed before looking at various faces. "Did that cat just _talk _man?"

"Calm down, we can't think if you won't stop talking." Max told them.

"I'm kind of freaked out, _alright_?"

"We all are; first the witches and now this… but we need to _think _about this; arguing won't accomplish anything." Allison spoke, trying to diffuse the situation. Jay turned around and walked away, once again running his hands through his hair as he paced back and forth.

"And I thought _we _were scared." Dani muttered.

Suddenly Jay came to a stop and spun around, facing back towards the group. "Wait, I've got it; there's this guy I know, kind of crazy, but he's totally hooked up with guns and stuff. He used to be in the military but he got kicked out. He's one of those conspiracy dudes. He'd know what to do."

"What are you, kidding? We're not going to just stroll across town to put our lives in the hands of some creepy psycho. Even if it _was _a good idea, we can't get out of the house."

Jay's temporary optimism vanished and he shook his head, thinking again despite how hard it probably was for him to do so.

"If only we had some kind of clue; something to help us think of a way out of this." Max thought out loud.

All of a sudden there was a loud crunch as part of the first floor ceiling gave way and Sarah's legs fell through the hole in the aged floorboards. "Watch where you walk, you dolt!" Winifred scolded the youngest sister. Her bare legs kicked about beneath the dress she wore, her untied shoes somehow staying on. Jay and Ice began drifting towards the area beneath the hole, but Sarah was pulled up out of it before they could get a peak at anything else. Allison rolled her eyes at the behavior as Max said "That wasn't exactly what I had in mind." However, a few moments later Allison moved forward in her chair, thinking. "Wait, this house is really old, right?" Max shrugged and said he thought so even though she was merely making a statement. "Lots of these old houses were mills in the wilderness. During the winter they didn't want to have to go out to a storage shed to get supplies so they built storage spaces beneath their houses. Sometimes they even had short escape tunnels in case the house caught on fire."

Jay and Ice immediately started searching for anything that looked like a panel or hatch, soon the others joined in on the search. Eventually they discovered a floorboard that was much larger than the others beneath a bookcase and decided they would have to move it. "Should we tell the witches about this?" Allison whispered. They glanced back at the staircase. "They _do _still likely want to use the potion to take the life force from children." Binx offered. "Besides, dying as a result of their time running out will probably be less painful than being eaten." Max added.

"Well, well, it seems our stout right heroes have brewed a bit of deceit _themselves_." A voice chided them from the top of the staircase. Winifred descended the steps, her sisters right behind her. "Thou art not as good and pure as thee _thought_. No matter; I will leave you to scurry through your burrows… sisters!" At Winifred's command her younger siblings veered off, Sarah grabbing their brooms and Mary drew aside the wooden block in front of the door. "But scurry quickly, lest ye become a ghastly ghoul's delicious dinner!" She grabbed the most appropriate broom from Sarah's hands and opened the door of the house, zapping the nearest zombie with electricity before flying off into the night. Mary followed shortly thereafter on a vacuum cleaner. The adolescents' attention was drawn towards the cauldron as they heard a "plunk" sound, and Sarah finished sealing some of the potion in a vial before scampering to the door and flying off on a mop. The group shouted after them but had little time to dwell on the witches' selfless departure as the zombies could now enter the house.

Max called for Jay's and Ice's help in pushing the bookcase out of the way and, with some effort and kicked up dust, they managed to pull the heavy bookcase aside. Allison was instantly down on the floor and wiped away the dust near the revealed hatch's handle before smiling in relief and pulling it up. Hers, and everyone else's hope was extinguished, however, when they discovered that the passageway in which they intended to escape had caved in long ago. The mound of dirt that had buried their dreams symbolized their coming demise. Maybe the sisters had known about it and that was why they had not tried to use it earlier, or perhaps they had been unaware of it altogether. Regardless, those that remained in the house were left with a horde of flesh-hungry zombies to contend with and no escape.

"Come on, we need to close the door!" Max called while running towards the exit. But he was stopped as Binx told him "No! This may very well be the chance we've needed. The zombies are focused on where the sisters went after they flew off, and they're slow. If we run we may very well be able to avoid them. It's a blessing in disguise."

"What are you, _crazy _cat? I'm not going to play running back against a mob of _zombies_!" Ice argued.

"We either run or we lock ourselves in here and wait until they break through the door. And my name is not 'crazy cat' it is _Binx_."

They stood, deciding in silence. Eventually Max realized they didn't have time. "Binx is right; we need to get out of here while we _can_." Dani nodded, saying she was going to go wherever he went. "Allison, what do you think?" The girl asked. The teenager in question rose from the floor and nodded her approval before they all gathered near the door.

"All right, ready?" Binx asked. Though the answers weren't all agreeable, the consensus was made and they decided to regroup near the truck. They dashed out from the house, winding and weaving their ways around the zombies they encountered. At times they were mere inches from the ghouls' snapping teeth, but they quickly made their way towards the truck and Max leapt into the driver's seat as Dani, Allison and Binx got inside as well. Jay and Ice were trailing behind, having had to double back and with a gathering group of zombies chasing after them. "Where are _we _supposed to go, man?" Jay shouted as they sprinted towards the truck. Max pushed the car door open and leaned out to tell them to get in the bed of the truck. However, he had barely finished speaking before an unseen zombie tore him from the truck and threw him to the ground, grabbing at him in the dirt. Max shouted in fear and kicked at the monster as it grasped at his jeans but was unable to keep the creature from dragging its way up his legs. The dirty, cracked fingernails reached for his face as the undead ghoul's teeth snapped at him. It lurched forward; its teeth aimed at his neck, before it jolted to a stop and was pulled back down the teenager by Jay and Ice. They helped him up and he thanked them for the assistance as Dani shouted his name.

The rotting smell of death fell upon them as a zombie seemed to materialize out of nowhere, and bit Jay on the shoulder. Max jumped forward and pushed the zombie from the young man before getting in the truck and telling them to get in the back once more. They eagerly complied and as Max heard the bumping sounds of them climbing up into the bed, he closed the door and told them to hang on. The truck's wheels squealed as he drove around several zombies, and _over _several more. The crunching sounds combined with the bobbing up and down of the vehicle made him want to throw up, but they continued driving and were soon on the road away from the terrible place, and hopefully _on _the way towards somewhere _safer_.

* * *

I'm taking a slightly different writing approach with this story. Please tell me if you like it, dislike it, or haven't really noticed. Usual disclaimers. You'd think that a story based on a Disney movie might be a bad plot in which to put zombies, but if you think about it... for that very same reason what _better _plot is there? Ha. I'm trying to keep some Disney-esque humor in the story and hopefully Winifred's old English speak isn't too annoying. Please tell me what you think; this is kind of an experiment at the moment. Also, if anyone can think of a better name for the story, please tell me; this is just the best I could come up with.


	2. As The Night Grows Dark

They had been driving for almost half an hour now; Jay directed Max towards where the crazy military veteran lived in the hopes he would be better prepared for the situation than they had been. And then there was the matter of the witches now having the potion… this night, or morning, rather, just kept getting worse. What were they going to do? Even if the vet _was _prepared for a zombie apocalypse there was no way they could destroy all of the ghouls before they hurt someone. Just the fact that there were so many of them to _begin _with was disconcerting and suggested there may already be victims.

"Make a left up here, man." Jay told Max as the latter looked at the road signs. As he realized what street was coming up he made a quick right, causing everyone to lean in the direction he was turning and for Jay to almost fall out of the truck. "Hey, man! What are you doing?" He shouted while trying to steady himself in the bed of the vehicle. "This is the same road as the town hall; we've got to warn my mom and dad!" He responded. The teenagers in the bed of the truck both protested, but realized that they really couldn't just drive off. "Max, are you sure that they'll even be alright when we _get _there?" Allison asked him. "No, I'm _not _sure! But we've _got _to at least _go _there!" Max retorted, his voice harsher than he intended it to be. Dani shrunk but Allison maintained herself; her parents were at her house, and she was worried about them too. Unfortunately, they couldn't take the risk to go there to save only a few people compared to the large dance party going on at the town hall.

There was still a mile or two before they would get to the building in which the dance was taking place and they honestly had no idea as to how they were going to convince their parents to believe a flesh-eating zombie horde had invaded the quiet town. After all, they hadn't even managed to convince the adults of the existence of the three witches, and that was _before _the trio had gotten onstage and cast a spell upon them by singing. Who knew? They were probably still dancing even_ now_. Max ran a hand through his hair, trying to think of a solution, as they continued driving down the empty, lonely road.

* * *

The air was shrill this early morning, but already the whispers of dawn were approaching on the wind; the Sanderson sisters did not have much time. Winifred scanned urgently for any signs of children still roaming the streets, but they were as dead as the eyes of the ghouls who had driven them from their home. Mary and Sarah were, of course, completely oblivious to their imminent conundrum and were instead acting like children. Several times, already, Winifred had been forced to scold the two for their foolishness, but soon they returned to their idiotic ways.

The streets of Salem, Massachusetts were largely unoccupied, and not a soul seemed to be wandering the sidewalks. 'Twas a strange situation, considering only a short while ago they had been surrounded by undead fiends. Perhaps the chains of hell which directed them did not have enough sway to reach further into town. Or maybe they simply could not keep up with the sisters' mounts sailing through the air high above the city. Their cloaks flapped about them as they swayed through the air. The sky was an open plain for the witches to travel as they would, reaching farther than the greatest ocean… wait, the air, the openness…

"Sarah! Use thy voice! Fill the sky! Bring the little brats to die!" Winifred commanded her sister. Within moments the normally childish girl began singing, filling the whole town with her beautiful voice. "Come little children, I'll take thee away, into a land of enchantment… come little children, the time's come to play, here in my garden of magic…" She sang, her song floating on the wind. It took longer than usual, but they began to see little forms drawing out of their houses, many wearing pajamas and others still their obscure uniforms.

The witches drifted down from the upper air currents towards the lower winds, as well as in the direction of a young boy with sandy blonde hair dressed in a red uniform with "Star Trek: Redshirt" on it in big yellow letters. They hadn't the time to ponder such intricacies as Winifred neared the sleepy boy, reaching out for him. However, as she did, another figure appeared out of nowhere and lunged onto the boy, causing him to scream as it bit him. Winifred withdrew her hand as if it had touched something hot and the sisters wafted away as the newly-appeared zombie continued to devour the boy. He likely would have survived longer had Sarah not called him out, but that was of ill importance now as they saw many other children being assaulted by the undead creatures. The fact that young lives were being extinguished mattered little to the redheaded leader of the trio, but what _did _matter was that with every meal the children served the grisly specters they took one _away _from _her_…them.

"Confound these devilish coffin-dwellers! We must find a child that is not within their reach!" She cursed. Sarah looked about dumbly, like a kitten. Mary, meanwhile, was simply sniffing at the air, trying to pick up the scent of a child. Winifred felt her anger boiling over as she shouted at them about how she always had to do everything herself. Sarah drew her broom closer to Winifred's to comfort her, but the elder sister shoved her away. Though it was not her intent, Sarah was sent falling from her mount and down through the air, with both siblings calling after her. She bounced off of some kind of air-filled colorful house and down into a pool in the backyard of a home, followed shortly thereafter by her broom falling onto the lawn. Her sisters followed her down as they girl emerged from the pool.

"Sarah, are you alright?" Mary called out to her. The young blonde woman's wet clothes hung to her slender frame and she pushed her long hair out of her face. "I bounced off of a house made of some sort of bladder and into this large pool of water." She informed the two who had already realized what happened. Apparently she had either forgotten or was uninterested as to how she had fallen in the first place. Winifred looked about, pretending not to care as she spotted a child looking at them from the other side of a glass door of the house.

"Winnie… I smell a child." Mary told her, quickly being hushed by the elder sister as Sarah drew out of the pool and all three advanced on the house. "My, what a wonderful costume you have on." Winifred complimented the young girl as they drew nearer to the house.

* * *

The town hall of Salem was just as they had left it; dark on the outside with multi-colored lights and sounds of music within it. And every car they had seen before seemed to still be waiting patiently in the otherwise vacant parking lot. Max parked on the street since he hadn't been driving enough to feel comfortable parking the long vehicle in a cramped parking lot. The group got out of the truck and Max made sure he put the keys in a buttoned pocket to keep from losing track of them. They approached the back entrance to the building since that was where the "main" entrance for the dance was. No one awaited them at the entrance, meaning that they had either been drawn into the dancing frenzy or… no; if the place had been attacked then there wouldn't be people inside still playing music.

Max ran up the stairs into the building, with everyone else close behind except for Binx, who hesitated at the entrance. It seemed like he had heard something, but when Dani called for him he followed them inside. They pushed their way into the main hall where the party was taking place and the entire group was relieved somewhat when they saw their parents were still there. Granted, they were in the throes of a spell that would make them dance until they died, but it was a great deal better than finding the entire large room coated with blood and who knew what else? At least this way they could try to find a way to snap them out of it.

Saxophones, guitars, drums, vocals and more blared throughout what was tonight a dance hall as the parents wearing various costumes ranging from dramatic to outright dumb moved to the music. They dared through the mob of sweaty old people, searching for their parents. Though Jay, Allison, Ice met with no success Max and Dani found theirs more or less where they had before. The two adults, one dressed like Dracula and the other like Madonna, were dancing just as the others were and seemed completely oblivious to their presence. The siblings spoke to them, told them they needed help, but were met with minimal results. Everyone else met them at their parents' location but despite their combined efforts they still achieved something comparable to nothing.

Allison glanced nervously back at the door they had used to enter the building and could almost feel the zombies shambling up the steps, threatening to pour into the room full of food. "Can you two go over there and stand by the door?" She asked Jay and Ice. "If they show up we'll need to know it." Neither of the teenagers seemed particularly thrilled by the idea, but being near the door wouldn't necessarily put them in danger, so they agreed and headed through the crowd.

As the three remaining people tried to think of a way to get Max and Dani's parents to snap out of their trance, Binx told them to look on the stage. They saw skeletons in suits playing instruments, but that was just guys in makeup and costumes. However, as another, far more gruesome figure stumbled onto the stage, they realized that somehow one of them had gotten inside. And, as they saw more making their way from behind the curtains the situation suddenly became far worse than they had thought. Three things went through Max's mind as he watched the zombies clamber closer to the oblivious performers. The first was that the spell the Sanderson sisters had cast on the adults was about to be the least of their problems, the second was that they needed to get their parents out of here. And the third thing was that, no matter what they did, everyone else was going to die.

A scream shrieked out through the speakers, making even the partygoers cover their ears at the overload of horrific noise as the singer fell to the ground with his assailant, red blood turning his once-white features a grisly muscle-colored pink. He was soon joined by the other members of the band and as each instrument ceased playing another, far louder and far more terrifying sound echoed to take their place. When the entire band's music degenerated to little more than painful, gurgling screams, the spell finally seemed to end.

As Max, Dani and Allison turned back towards the now-terrified crowd Jay and Ice ran out from it, sweat on their foreheads and fear in their eyes. "They're coming, man! They're far away but still-" Jay was cut off as people in the crowd started screaming; apparently the zombies had made it further than just onto the stage. Max covered his face with his hands, trying to think of a way out of the situation. "Max, what's going on?" His father asked him, and he brought his hands down. His parents both seemed to be back to normal, scared and unsure, but back to normal. "You're… you're alright." Dani hugged their mother as Max's father placed a hand on his shoulder. "Max, what it is going _on_?" The teenager took a deep breath and then told them the basic gist of everything that had happened.

"That's a lot to absorb... well, we need to get out of here, let's go." He said, and everyone agreed. They tried to make their way around the edge of the mob, reluctantly using the feeding frenzy in the middle of the room as a distraction, but as they grew close to the door a figure leapt out of the crowd and onto Dani, snapping at her face. Max and their father pulled the ghoul off of the girl before it could do her any damage, but it turned its attention to their dad and it took the combined efforts of Max, Jay and Ice to get it off of him and throw it back into the crowd.

They made their way to the door without any more problems but as they reached it and look backed into the room it seemed that most of the crowd had already been felled, and those zombies that couldn't get a bite in edgewise soon turned their attention to the group and began shambling towards them. They ran quickly through the door and closed it, but it took multiple people just to hold it still as the others ahead of them made their way down the steps. Max told Ice and Jay to head out to the truck too as he and his father held the door themselves.

"Max, get out of here." His father spoke to him in an eerily calm tone. "Alright, we'll both let go and run down the steps as quick as we can-" Max had to put all of his strength to work in order to keep the door closed as more and more bodies pushed against it. "No, I mean get out of here, alone." He looked up at his father, not understanding. His dad understood and looked away for a moment before looking back at him, managing to pull away a collar on his vampire costume to show a bite on his neck.

"You aren't the only ones who've seen zombie movies, Max; your mother and I saw them before you were born. We know what happens to someone that's been bitten by one of those things. It doesn't matter _what _it's from." Max shook his head as it became harder to hold the zombies back. "No…" His father put a hand on his shoulder one last time and brought him close. "You get your sister, your friends and your mother out of here. I'll hold them back for as long as I can." Max continued moving his head slowly from side to side like a toy running low on batteries. "Now go!"

Max gnashed his teeth together and he ran down the stairs, almost tripping on his own feet. He could hear the door being forced open more and more, but did not yet hear it breaking. Honestly, he couldn't have looked back if he'd _wanted _to, and he didn't. The door at the bottom of the stairs was open and on the last few steps he stumbled and shambled out of the door almost like the very thing he was running from. Everyone was already at the truck, but since he had the keys, no one had started it yet. All from every street and sidewalk and lawn and parking lot he could see more and more ghouls emerging. Thankfully they were still a ways off, but they didn't have much time.

"Max! Come on!" Allison yelled, getting him to move. He ran across the hard parking lot towards the truck and the group that waited nearby. As he did his mother asked him where his father was. When Max told her he wasn't coming she ran back towards the building, shouting his name. Max tried to stop her, but he wasn't quick enough.

As the zombies drew in towards them he had to decide whether to go after his mother or get the truck started. Before she could even reach the building everyone heard the door up above break down and several bodies tumbled to the bottom of the stairs. Their mother helped pull one of them up and soon both their father and mother slammed the bottom door closed to once again halt the progress of the zombies. Except now it wasn't just one person but two.

Dani screamed out for their mom and dad to get away, but their mother didn't seem willing to leave her husband behind. As the couple argued about the situation Max cursed and ran to the truck to get it started; whether their mother would decide to come along with them or stay behind, he had to get the truck started. He leapt into the driver's seat as everyone got in the truck as well, though Dani had to be held inside by Allison. Max turned the truck on and backed into the parking lot. He watched the area about them to make sure no zombies reached them, trying to keep his mind on-task and off both of his parents possibly dying.

Everyone else was looking behind them and, as the two exchanged a kiss and Max and Dani's mother began running towards the truck they realized the two had made their decision. The group within the truck yelled for her to hurry as the zombies forced their way through the door and knocked Max's father aside in their pursuit for the fleeing woman. Though several stayed behind to attack him as well, it was impossible to see what was going on as a constant stream of bodies flooded through the opening.

The truck began to pull ahead slightly as Max prepared to drive away, but only a few yards away from the truck zombies ambushed her and cut her off from the vehicle. Though they hadn't reached her yet the horde had effectively surrounded the woman. Max finally turned around to face out of the back and everyone shouted for her to find a way around them. But they were wishing for the impossible. All the adult could do was climb atop a car and try to make her way from one to the other to get away. Regardless, the cars were too far from the curb for her to be able to jump, and the zombies from the streets nearby seemed to be closing in quicker than ever. Eventually, realizing that they couldn't wait, Max and Dani's mother told them to leave without her. Dani shouted that she wouldn't leave her behind.

"Honey, I'll find a way to get to you, but I can't do that right now. You need to get out of here and stay safe so that I can find you when I get away, alright?"

Dani swallowed and Max felt his hands sweating on the steering wheel as the two tried to hold back tears. Then their mother looked at Max, told him she was proud of him, and told him to go like their father had. And like before, he knew she was right and trembled as he drove away from the parking lot. He didn't care that he ran over a few zombies on the way.

* * *

"I am beautiful! Boys will _love _me!" Sarah shouted in glee as she felt the girl's life flowing within her. "You look the same as you did before, Sarah; all that did was allow us to live past the night. If we do not find more children to suck the life out of we will still grow old and decrepit." Winifred scolded her. "Well, Winnie, at least we don't have to worry about the sun coming up." Mary spoke feebly.

The witches walked towards the front door of the house, their business done here just as well as the child was that sat lifeless on a couch. Their brooms in hand, Winifred turned the handle of the door and pulled. It failed to open. "What manner of contraption is this?" She demanded, turning the handle the other way and trying again. She met with similar results. "What is that sticking out of the handle?" Sarah asked. "Be quiet, girl!" Winifred shouted at her. "I'm trying to concentrate!"

Sarah recoiled and walked off like a cowardly puppy as Winifred continued experimenting with the door handle to see how to open it. Eventually, by mere chance, she just happened to turn the lock within the handle and opened the door. She shouted in victory for a moment before a loud blaring noise shook them all into a screaming frenzy and rushed the witches outside. There awaited many zombies about the area, but none that were nearby. Winifred seemed not the least bit intimidated by them and, to restore her confidence after running from the alarm, shocked one of them. Instead of merely making it fall to the ground the force sent the ghoul sprawling through the air, leaving a trail of smoke behind. The zombie did not get up.

"You see? With just one child's life force I can put one of these devils down with naught but a nod!" Winifred boasted, Sarah happily surveying the scene and Mary telling Winnie how great she was. They continued walking about the street, Winifred shocking one zombie after another, none of which got up after they went down. Then, with the sweet smell of death in the air, they took to the skies. Sarah fell onto a lawn once, but afterwards they soared about the town without a care in the world except for the next child they would find.

"Sister, who should we suck the life force out of next; a girl or a boy?" Mary asked. "'Tis not important, whatever child we find shall suffice for now. After we have escaped this horrid town we will be able to choose _desirable _victims, not just any urchin we run across on the street."

"But Winnie, don't we need more potion?" Sarah asked her, a surprising question considering she often thought about as deeply as a puddle of water. And Winifred thought on the matter, her face scrunching as her mind whirred and a low growl emanated from her throat. "Well why didn't you tell me about that _before _we were on the other side of the village you dolt?" She shouted. Sarah gave a feeble apology and they turned about, heading back towards their home. "The matter is of no consequence; we will go home and get more of my potion and then we can go and look for more children."

"Shall I sing my song to lure the children out?" Sarah eagerly asked her elder sister. "Don't be an idiot, you fool! Doing so would only draw the little brats onto the streets to be devoured as the others were! No, we shall have to be cleverer if we are to find another child… Sarah, you will continue to search the town for signs of children. Meanwhile Mary and I will go and retrieve more potion." Sarah shifted uncomfortably on her broom. "But Winnie, what about the monsters?" She asked, afraid to search on her own. Winifred seemed unsympathetic to her plight and scoffed. "You are hundreds of feet up in the _air _you _dupe_! Even if you were but ten feet off the ground they could never harm you. Now stop stalling and do as you are told!" Sarah said "Yes, Winnie" as she always did when told to do something, and then the sisters parted ways to complete their tasks.

* * *

The road was long, longer than it should have been. Max was going almost 40 miles an hour but the houses seemed to be going by slower than if he had been walking. He was oblivious to the warnings of the others in the car that he was going too fast, that was until Binx scratched him through his jacket. The pain brought him back and he winced as he glanced at the black cat. "You're driving like a lunatic! I realize that the loss of your parents was traumatic, but you aren't the only person that lost them! And you're going to get everyone killed if you have an accident!" Max sighed and slowed down, nodding. "Sorry."

He tried to keep the image of his parents being eaten alive out of his head. Of course, because of that he _couldn't _keep them out of his mind. Still, he knew that he had to at least focus on driving; his parents would have died in vain if it was only so that he could crash into the back of a parked semi.

"Where did you say this guy's house was again?" He asked Jay who was once again in the bed of the truck. "We're almost there! It's just down the street! Maybe a mile or so!" The teenager shouted from out back.

They had been lucky that most of the zombies had congregated around the town hall building. It was ironic that what had almost killed them was the very reason they had not seen a threat for several miles. Nevertheless, just because they didn't _see _anything didn't mean there wasn't anything _there_. It had seemed like the zombies were nowhere to be found before they'd gone to the town hall building as well, and they saw how well _that _turned out…

At that thought, the car began to slow down and Max realized, in both fear and anger, that the truck's gas tank was on empty. It probably _had _been since they had left the parking lot. "Guys, we've got a problem." He told them, pointing to the gauge. Allison sighed and closed her eyes and the teenagers in back asked why they were slowing down so much. "We're on empty!" He told them. Their responses required that Max wind up the window so that Dani couldn't hear too much of it. The car drove slower and slower until, at last, Max put it into park near the curb. He rolled the window down and asked Jay if he thought they could make it on foot. Not that it really mattered; they had to regardless. But it would be nice knowing that they wouldn't have to go too far. In between the complaints and the cries of "game over" Jay told him it was about half a mile.

"Alright, it's not that far away. We can make it." He told everyone, getting out of the truck and looking around; there didn't seem to be any ghouls nearby but that didn't mean they weren't around. "Max, I don't think it's safe to walk there." Dani told him from within the truck. No one seemed all that eager to get out of it. But they wouldn't get anywhere just waiting around in the truck. The zombies would find them again eventually. Really, their only chance of survival rested on the hope that this crazy veteran might actually be prepared for something like this. And who _would _be?

"Staying here is not an option; they're going to find us eventually!" He told them, trying to keep his voice down despite the tinge of fear in his tone. "We have to get out of here! I can't let what happened to my- our parents be in vain!" No one provided him resistance, though Dani began to cry. Max felt guilty but it was the truth; both of his parents had made him promise to take care of Dani and the other members of his group, and he wasn't going to let them down. "Now come on! The sooner we get moving the sooner we'll make it to that guy's house!"

Slowly everyone got out of the truck and touched down on the street, coming around to where he waited. "Alright… Jay, you said we're only a half a mile from his house, right? That means that even if we walk we'll be there in around half an hour or less. And if it looks like they're showing up we can jog the rest of the way."

He looked down the street. The streetlights weren't well-maintained; they just barely lit the road enough for them to be able to make out where they were going. They would have to be careful not to get ambushed. "Jay, you're on the left, Ice, you're on the right, I'll stay out front, and Binx can keep a lookout for them." Everyone agreed and they began to slowly make their way down the street, the male teenagers staying on the outside in case something leapt out at them. Binx walked about them, scanning the area with his naturally-superior eyesight.

For several minutes all they had to worry about was the coldness of the early morning air and the creepiness of the silent area about them. Then Binx spotted a shambling form shuffling out from behind a house. The group quickened its pace, but Max reminded them that the zombies couldn't move all that quickly, and that they were even closer now. They continued down the black path of asphalt, the shadows seeming to shift about them as some of the street lights faded out and others seemed to just burst. It was as if the night itself was set out against them. Still, they endeavored on and eventually the man's house came within eyesight and Jay pointed it out. None of the lights were on, but the door was closed and there didn't seem to be any signs of a break-in.

Binx looked far off in the distance and shouted for them to run as he spotted a large group of zombies on the opposite side of the house heading towards them. They took off, their shoes pounding on the pavement and shaking up the night as the zombies began to moan for them and reached out, grasping at the air. Dani began to fall behind, but Max picked her up and ran with her in his arms. The house seemed to be in a painting that they couldn't delve into and it felt like they weren't even moving as the zombies grew ever closer. Then all of a sudden they were at the door, like they had looked at a bright light and gone blind until this moment, and they banged on the door.

"Come on, man! Open up!" Jay shouted. "We haven't been bitten!" Added Ice. Within they saw no movement, nor a light turning on. It was dead inside. Had the man fled town already, or was he too afraid to open the door? Worse still, could he have already been killed? If they had to they could break a window, but it looked like he had bars on the inside and even if they _could _get inside it would only be a tiny, cramped deathtrap without any help.

They glanced fearfully in the direction of the zombies, and saw that the horde had already made it as close as two houses down. They didn't have time to be banging on the door. They needed to get in! Where _was _this guy? They screamed and hollered, continuing to beat on the door as the mass of cannibalistic forms grew closer. Max glanced to the right but even saw individual zombies coming out onto the road and forming the beginning of their own horde. Could they jump over a fence? No, even if they _could_ there was no way of knowing if there would just be another horde on the other side of it. They wouldn't know where to go _anyway_, they _needed _him to open the dam- the door opened and an aged man looked them over, scanning for wounds before asking them if they were sure that they hadn't been bitten. They told him they were sure.

"Were you scratched? Did their blood get in your mouth?" He demanded. "We're _sure _alright? We're not infected, or cursed, or anything else!" The man seemed to contemplate things and gazed out past them at the quickly-approaching zombie horde. "Alright, come inside." He told them while getting out of their way and letting the group inside. "Thank god, we wouldn't stand a chance out there-" Max cut himself off as the elderly adult put a hand in the way of him closing the door. "What are you doing? We need to lock the door!" Max told him. "Shut the door, man!" Jay added.

The man's mature features didn't seem scared; in fact they seemed almost _amused_. "I don't know how they raise you kids _nowadays_, but back in _my_ time…" He spoke, pulling the top of a nearby table off and revealing it to be some sort of Vietnam-era heavy machinegun attached to a platform with wheels. A box of bullets and a strip of them leading into the large weapon looked like they worked, and he wheeled it over to the door before pushing it out through the doorway and onto the street. "We were taught to take care of _business_!" He shouted, aiming the gun at the shapes and opening fire. The constant stream of cracks that sounded out threatened to make the adolescents go deaf and the horde of bodies disappeared in chunks at a time; like black silhouettes on paper being gouged out with a pair of large scissors. He turned it around and let loose on the zombies that had been approaching from the way they'd come. The night flashed orange and yellow as spent casings flew around, the strip of bullets in the gun being drawn through quicker than a person could keep track.

The gun finally went silent and only one shape was still standing, and missing parts of it at that. The man brought up a small object to his chest, pulled something out of it, and then threw it at the figure, embedding it in the thing's skull.

Everyone looked at the man as he turned back towards them and spoke "See? Not a problem." Max stumbled on his words before managing to ask the man who he was. The bereted male lit a cigar which illuminated his strong but wrinkled features, exposing light grey stubble and ice blue eyes. "My name's Theodore Francis Washington Lincoln Bushwhacker the third."

The grenade exploded and sent chunks of the surrounding bodies into the sky.

"And I'm a veteran."

* * *

Thanks for your extremely generous review, it's the only reason I updated. ha. This chapter was intended to focus more on the horror aspect of the story, and Theodore is going to be the most stereotypical veteran you have ever read in a story. The next chapter should be decidedly more upbeat. Hopefully the quality of this chapter isn't lesser than that of the other one, since I did it in two days instead of however many it took for the other one. I know I kind of just killed their parents off but I didn't want to have to establish them as characters when they weren't going to be a major part of the story anyway.


	3. Dawn

"Wow… that's uh… a pretty long name." Max eventually managed to say to the aged man that had just saved their lives. With the recently-arrived peace he was able to take notice of Theodore's beige army fatigues, which would blend in well if he had still been within his house. On his feet he wore combat boots, which made loud knocking sounds as he walked. Max couldn't tell if his beret meant he had been a part of the green berets or if it was just something soldiers could wear, but either way, the man was no pushover. With the first impression _he'd _given, Max wasn't all that unsure that he could take down all of the zombies _himself_. But that brought up an interesting question "Wait if you've got all this firepower and you're not afraid why aren't you out there killing those things?" He asked. Allison spoke his name in a hushed tone, fearing that he might start something, as the man walked closer, his heavy boots making his footsteps ominous.

"Son, I'm a retired _soldier_, not a Hells Angel; I don't just ride around town shooting the hell out of people. It reveals your position, makes a lot of noise, and gets you surrounded by hostiles." He dropped the cigar on the street and stomped it out. "Like what you were just doing."

Max looked away, not wanting to argue and knowing the retiree was right. "So, what's your plan?" He asked Theodore as the man walked back into his home. "To survive, son. Always. That's all you can try for in a situation like this."

The inside of his house wasn't anything special; it was definitely bachelor-esque, with not a whole lot of taste. The walls were beige like his fatigues, and the carpet was an all-brown shag rug. There were some posters up here and there from "live shows" of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and other older bands and- did he have a _disco ball_? Mixed in with nostalgic items from his past were various military collectibles like model planes and vintage sabers. Max didn't see any other weapons but if the guy had converted a table into a mobile gun platform chances were he had more lying around the house than a baseball bat.

Theodore walked over to one of the couches in his living room and pulled out a duffel bag which he unzipped and began pulling pieces out of. They seemed to be parts to a gun, but it was hard to tell because they seemed to fly from the bag into the weapon so quickly that when the man finished assembling the weapon it was as if time had been fast-forwarded. He loaded a clip of ammunition into the gun and stood, making sure it wasn't pointing at anyone.

"Woah! Dude! That's a nice gun!" Jay told him, causing the veteran to raise an eyebrow. "This is not a _gun_, son, it's a _rifle_! Rifle, Caliber 5.56 mm, M16! It first was used in the military in South Vietnam in 1963 and by 1969 it had become the standard U.S. rifle!" He lectured.

"Hey, hey, sorry du-" Theodore cut him off once again as he continued "It is a lightweight, gas-operated, magazine-fed assault rifle with a rotating bolt and actuated by direct impingement gas operation. It is made of steel, 7075 aluminum alloy, and composite plastics and polymer materials!"

The group eyed each other nervously as his speech went on to point out that the M16A2 rifle entered service in the 1980's, that the M16 was based on the AR-10 design developed by Eugene Stoner, and that often condoms were used to protect the barrel from rain and other undesirable conditions. By the time he had finished they knew more than they had ever wanted to know about the rifle, except for Dani, who had located herself behind Allison and simply covered her ears.

"Well, uh, thanks." Max spoke, hoping his "gratification" would cause the man to shut up. He seemed to have lost interest anyway, and attached a sling to the gun and slung it over his shoulder. "Not a problem." He said, putting more clips of ammunition into various large pockets in his uniform.

"So, do you have any extra guns?" Ice asked Theodore, who eyed him suspiciously. "You ever fired a weapon before son? Other than your own?" Theodore asked, getting a chuckle from Jay. "Hey, shut up, man!" He told his friend before telling the veteran that he hadn't.

"Well they can hurt people, bad. I'm not about to let you swing one of them around if you don't know the butt from the barrel."

"Guns have butts?" The teenager asked. Theodore seemed like he was going to launch into another lecture involving firearms but eventually seemed to decide it wasn't worth it. "Now you're _definitely _not getting one." He remarked.

"Look, I know you've got a good position here- uh- sir, but we were just at the town hall and almost every adult in town got eaten there." Max told him, gaining the man's attention. "My mother is still there trying to stay out of the zombies' reach by staying on the roofs of cars, but she won't be able to keep hopping from one car to the next forever. Can you help us rescue her?"

Theodore gazed straight into Max's eyes, but though the aged man had a predator's stare, nothing seemed to be able to deter Max's determination at the moment. Eventually Theodore looked away and gazed at his house.

"I already told you, if we just go riding around they'll hear us and then we'll get surrounded."

"But if we just head straight there, rescue her, and come straight back they won't be able to keep up with us!"

"And what are we going to do when we need the gas to leave town? You want us to park at a gas station and pay for gas while the zombies eat our brains? You think your mother would want you to rescue her if it meant getting everyone killed?"

Max sighed, his seemingly unshakable determination quenched. He knew that she wouldn't; both she and his father had made him promise not to let anyone else get hurt.

"What we _can _do is go there on foot and these other kids stay here, while you and I go find her."

"No! I'm not leaving my brother!" Dani told him, stepping out from behind Allison. Theodore's gaze drew down to her. "Look, if your brother and I can find her we can bring her back. If we can't we can come back anyway. But it will be easier for us to get there and back undiscovered with a smaller group than a larger one." He spoke, trying to reassure her. However, a stubbornness as strong as Max's had been previously was prevalent in her eyes.

"You sure come from tenacious stock, don't you kids?" He ultimately asked Max, who knelt down to talk to Dani. It was the only chance the man would give him to go and find his mother. With all the nearby zombies gone, he was sure that Dani and Alison and the others would be safe until they got back, even if they had to go on foot.

It took a while for Max to convince her to stay, but with some reassurance by Allison she finally conceded. Theodore left the room to get some more supplies for the trip as the group discussed what they were going to do. "So you're going to walk all the way there?" Jay asked. "Maybe we'll jog or something, I don't know. But considering we don't really have anything we can pull to get him to agree to another plan I'm just going to have to take what I can get." Max responded. They tried to keep their voices down both so that the veteran wouldn't hear them and so that they could hear his progress in the other rooms. "I don't know about this guy, though. I've heard some pretty weird stories. He's said he was in both world wars, Vietnam, that gulf war… I even heard he said he was at the Alamo. I don't care _how _old he looks; he wasn't around for _all _of that." Ice remarked, disagreeing with the plan.

"While we're gone look around for some weapons; with all the stuff he's got to have there's no way he's bringing it all with us."

Theodore returned, a new duffel bag slung over his free shoulder as he walked into the room. "You ready, kid?" He asked, to which Max told him he was. "Then let's get going. The sun's going to start rising any minute and we need to make use of the darkness while we can."

The two walked over to the door and he looked outside to make sure no zombies had discovered their location and then he opened it and exited. Max followed him and they walked out onto the steps outside his house.

"Oh, and by the way, kids, whatever polish you scratch off my locks you're putting right back on when I return. And if either of you two punks breaks my couch I'm gonna come back here and break your ass. Stay safe now."

With that closing statement he shut the door and the two walked out onto the street. "We came from down that way." Max told him, pointing towards where the broken down truck was. Theodore nodded and tossed the duffel bag to the teenager for him to carry as he took the slung rifle from his shoulders and gripped it.

"Here's hoping you aren't as dumb as you look."

* * *

The house was dark; it was almost too dark to see, with only shadows of the walls, floors and doorways providing guidance through the dead building. Here and there a lone candle flickered, but the small sources of light only served to make the shadows shift and turn into demons. They vanished long enough to form elsewhere and turned the quiet home into a terrifying labyrinth. Nevertheless, Anna Crawford had to make it through if she were to succeed. An empty home in the middle of a zombie disaster was no place for a child, and yet here she was, only eleven years old, and still hanging in there.

She stepped lightly, putting her weight upon her toes as much as possible so as to reduce the sound of both her footsteps and the possibility of the floorboards creaking. Her long brown hair was done back in a ponytail so that it couldn't brush against any of the numerous picture frames showing some happy siblings smiling. Her breathing came out only through her nose, and then only as she stepped downward. Her lithe form delved forward, almost through the hallway… as a floorboard creaked underfoot.

Anna clicked her tongue in disapproval as she abandoned stealth and instead ran for the sliding door to the backyard of the building, desperate to get outside. She didn't yet here sounds of anything moving, but that didn't mean there wasn't something lying in wait for her. Her legs extended and she moved her arms vertically to gain more speed. She passed the kitchen in the back, reaching the living room, and reached for the door handle even as something dove forward, pulling her to the couch as she shrieked. She struggled as the larger form refused to let her go until ultimately she gave in and giggled.

Her elder brother sat up, smiling down at her as she smiled back. She lay beneath him, feeling warmer even though they no longer touched, and brushed a strand of long brown hair out of his face and over his ear.

"You did pretty well this time; a second more and you would have made it." He told her, his deep warm voice comforting her.

"It's those darn floorboards. I swear; you loosened them up so that they would make more noise." She told him, to which he chuckled and began to stand up, helping her up as well.

"You're growing; of course you're going to make more noise." He informed her. "But _you _never make any noise!" She argued. "Well… I'm _older_; I've had more time to practice being quiet." Her brother, Alexander, instructed. She pouted at his "no win scenario" and looked back down the hall from which she'd come. "It's not fair; you're more than ten years older than me. You'll _always _be better than I am at things."

Alex placed a hand upon her cheek and gently pulled her face to look back at him. "Not always. Eventually I'll get _so _old that _you'll _be better than _me _at everything." She grinned, her bright green eyes shining in the dim light as she gazed into her brother's darker green ones. "I want to try again." He shook his head, trying not to laugh as he told her not now. "But why not?!"

Alex hushed her. "Because I have to go out and patrol. I'll be back in half an hour. If you're still awake maybe we can try again. But remember, you're still growing, so you need to try and get more sleep than I do. You don't want to be the size of an eleven-year-old _forever_ do you?" She hugged him, smiling. "If it means we can stay like this forever, then yes." Alex hugged her in return and rubbed her back. "I know it seems like things are good, but I'm sorry that we have to live this way."

They separated and she shook her head. "I wouldn't have it any other way, Alex; us together is all I care about." He rubbed her head and her shoulders drooped, disliking being treated like his baby sister. "Listen to you; only eleven years old and already you know what you want." She brought her head out from beneath his hand and crossed her arms, smiling victoriously. "Girls mature faster than boys do." She told him. He chuckled and gazed down at her. "Is that so? Then maybe _I _need to practice to catch up with _you_."

"I'll wait until you get back." She told him, happy now. "I can play Gameboy until then." With that she walked back down the hall to her room. "Don't forget to read a book every now and then." He called after her. "I know, I read the manuals." Anna told him before closing her bedroom door, locking it on the other side like she was supposed to. "Not exactly what I meant." He thought out loud as he stood in the back of the dark home.

The electricity still worked for some reason; the reason the lights were all off was because it would offer a less-viable target for the zombies to attack. The Plexiglas in the back door, the deep-set stakes for the fence in the backyard, and other facets of the property were all designed to help deter or hold off zombies if necessary. Being that they had recently moved to Salem and that it was just Anna and he, it hadn't been all that difficult to convince the neighbors that he just wanted some extra security for her when he wasn't home. But in truth the safety measures hadn't been implemented for an "if" of a burglary or kidnapping, but rather a "when" for the very situation that had descended upon them.

Alexander sighed and the twenty four year-old walked over to the dining room table to gather his equipment. He wore breathable underclothing beneath his usual clothing which was resistant to tearing, and light boots which had a steel toe in them. His long hair too was in a ponytail, though there was a chord through it as opposed to a scrunchee like in Anna's. Technically they weren't either supposed to have long hair, since it could be grabbed, but he was careful, and he knew that when the day came that she would go out to patrol with him that she would be too.

He attached a long knife in its sheath to his belt as well as a home-made bandolier-type strap that held bolts for his crossbow. He had made it so that they wouldn't rattle around like in a quiver and decided to leave some of the other items where they were, seeing as he didn't need it just to go out and check the area. He lifted the crossbow and rested it against his shoulder as he walked down the hall towards the front of the house. He heard sounds coming from Anna's Gameboy and knocked on her door once as he walked by, telling her to stay safe. She told him that she would, like she had hundreds of times before, as he walked to front door and, after briefly checking for any threats outside, left the house, locking the door behind him.

* * *

The sun was just beginning to come up, filling the air with a dull blue light. However, the basic illumination did nothing to aide Sarah Sanderson as she continued her search for another child. She did not know if the other children had all been eaten, or if they were simply all within their homes. Still, it did not matter; if she didn't find a child then Winny would be most upset with her. Her youthful features eagerly searched for any signs of a child, yet she could not find one. Many ghouls now wandered the streets and despite her sister's words, Sarah felt herself growing anxious flying around on her own.

Her determined searching was brought to a stop as she spotted a boy leaving a house down below. He was too old to give the potion but even from here he looked extremely handsome. Sarah smiled, her quest now forgotten, as she and her broom drifted down towards the house. His hair was long and dark, and he wore a long dark-brown coat that looked like it had been seen many years of use. On his shoulder he rested some strange manner of bow and his eyes scanned the streets about him, looking for any sign of danger. She was about to say "hello" when something leapt out of the bushes onto him. It took her only a few moments to realize that it was a ghoul, and she halted her descent.

She watched as the two struggled briefly, the man using his strange bow as a shield. Within only a few moments he brought the bow back and hit the zombie in the face with part of it. However, though it struck the ghoul down, it also fired the arrow within it at her and caused the blonde to fall from her broom and into a large group of bushes. The branches poked at Sarah through her clothing but she eventually managed to free herself from the pointy green prison and dropped onto the grass. She stood up and the world remained green. "What is happening?" She asked dimwittedly while looking from side to side. After over a minute she realized that a branch had fallen into her corset and she pulled it out, tossing it onto the grass.

A fence surrounded her, taller than she could climb over. The grass was cut low, and she saw an outhouse in the back corner of the yard, across from it was a house with one of those invisible glass doors. It was strange seeing an outhouse in the yard of one of these homes, as she had not seen a single one in any other, but Sarah soon lost interest in the matter as she walked up to the invisible door and pulled it to the side.

She scuttled into the single-story house and looked around, seeing naught but darkness and walls and some candles here and there within protective coverings. Down the hall lay a door and she began to walk towards it so that she might leave and get her broom. Perhaps if she was lucky she would get to see the handsome boy again. As Sarah walked down the hall, however, she heard a curious noise on the other side of a hallway door. She placed her ear against it to hear the strange sounds better but still could not make out from what source it came.

Sarah attempted to turn the door handle, but it would not move. Was it locked as the other one had been? While the sounds on the other side of the door continued, some of them seemed to cease, as if her attempt to open the door had taken the privilege away from her. Eventually she decided to knock on the door and when she did that from within came a young voice "Who is it?" which sounded neither scared nor friendly, yet it was beautiful.

"'Tis I." She responded, smiling and thinking it was some manner of game. Yet the young girl on the other side of the door did not appear to be having as much fun with it as she was. "Have you been bitten?" the girl asked, to which she responded that she had not.

The strange sounds ceased and Sarah heard movement on the other side of the door before it was unlocked and the obstruction was opened. Within the room stood a pretty girl, who was maybe ten or eleven years old, with long brown hair. She wore some manner of short nightgown which did not reach her knees and soft cloth pants; surely it was her sleeping wear.

"How did you get in here?" Was the first question the girl asked her once they caught sight of each other. Sarah told her that she had fallen into their backyard and that the back door had been unlocked. "How did you fall into our yard with the fence as high as it is? Did you fall off of a broom or something?" She spoke, with the second sentence tinged with humor. When Sarah told her that she had the little girl seemed like she almost might laugh.

"Are you alone?"

The blonde witch nodded and told her that she had been looking for someone else for a long time now, and that she was glad that she finally had found another person.

"With all the zombies outside it's difficult to find anyone around. Everyone else on our street has either been killed or isn't home. It's really just luck that you managed to show up here."


	4. Sunday Morning Coming Down

"What's your name?" Anna asked the strange but beautiful woman. She was dressed like a witch, but her outfit looked homemade. More than that, they looked like real clothes.

"My name is Sarah Sanderson." She responded with a smile.

_"Sanderson? That sounds familiar. Didn't I hear about them at school?" _Anna wondered.

"It's nice to meet you. My name is Anna Crawford. Do you mind if I ask how you survived out there with no weapon?"

Sarah seemed dumbfounded and Anna guessed that she wasn't all that well-endowed in the brains department. But at least she was nice. And now she would have someone to play with or at least talk to until Alex returned. Once did come back, though, she was likely to get lectured on letting a stranger in. Somehow Anna didn't think that "she fell off her broomstick" would work as an excuse.

"That's right; they couldn't reach you while you were on your broom." Anna joked.

Sarah's gaze wandered about Anna's room like a cat's. She wondered if Sarah was actually looking for anything or just lost her train of thought.

"Well, would you like to play a game?"

Sarah's gaze returned to her and, based on her apparent enthusiasm, Anna guessed that she must be a kid at heart.

"Yes, I love games. What game would you like to play?"

Anna considered the matter, as she did not want to play anything that would make too much noise or require turning on any lights. The sun was probably out by now, but not to such an extent that bright lights wouldn't draw some manner of attention. That pretty much kicked out board games. Her room's window was sealed so they didn't need to worry about light leaking out from there. But the games were all in a closet, and she didn't want to take the chance that a flashlight would draw the attention of a zombie. Especially since Alex had just left.

"I've got it; how about we play Twister?"

Sarah showed the first genuine signs of confusion since she had arrived, and Anna guessed she had never played it before.

"You might like it, I'll get it." She told the woman, moving past her.

Twister was on the top of the other games, so it wouldn't require any additional light to find it. Anna just hoped Alex wouldn't be angry with her for letting her guard down around a complete stranger. Sarah seemed like a good person, if a bit on the slow side. And either way, she certainly wasn't dangerous.

* * *

"Um, are you sure we're going the right way?" Max asked the veteran.

They had taken a different route when Bushwacker thought he recognized a shortcut, but Max didn't think it was helping. He hadn't been living in town long, but it felt like they were going in the _opposite _direction of town hall.

"Listen, kid; I've been living here since before your doctor spanked you on the rear the day you were born." The old man responded without looking back.

"So that means the reason we're going the wrong way is because you've got Alzheimer's?" Max muttered.

"What was that?"

"Uh, nothing. I was just wondering if the others are safe."

"So long as they don't do anything stupid, they will be. I'm not worried about the girls. But that blonde surfer-boy and the idiot with the words carved into the back of his head aren't exactly worth betting the bank on."

Normally Max would agree. But he was sure they were more than scared enough to simply stay put. He hoped so anyway.

"Wait."

Max did as Bushwacker said, and looked around. But he didn't see any zombies and would be willing to bet his eyesight was better than the old man's.

"What do you see?"

The veteran's head darted back and forth, scrutinizing every corner and alley with equal caution.

"I don't feel good." He said, continuing his surveillance.

"Do you need an aspirin or something?" Max asked him.

Bushwacker's shoulders actually sagged for a moment before he gave Max an irritated glance.

"No, you half-wit. I mean that the situation doesn't feel right to me. Something's wrong about the air around here."

Aside from the insult at the beginning, Max found the old man's response so cliché he expected a tumbleweed to blow by in front of them or something.

"Maybe we're going the wrong way."

"Shut up and keep your eyes open."

They moved forward slowly, the veteran drawing his M16 down from his shoulder to grasp in his hands. Max wished he could actually wield one of the guns in the duffel bag, but even if Bushwacker would allow it, he doubted his marksmanship would be any good. Plus he didn't know if he could shoot someone, even if they had been turned into a zombie.

The wind was getting colder, which was strange considering that the sun had lit the early morning up a bright blue. He wondered if Bushwacker would want to hole up in some building during the daytime and hoped not. The longer they took to reach the town hall the greater the chance they would never find his mother, or if they did…

"There!" The old veteran shouted as he aimed his M16 at a- a rabbit?

Max felt his jaw drop and he almost lost his grip on the duffel bag. Could this guy really be that dumb? What was the rabbit supposed to do? Bite them with its nasty, big, pointy teeth?

"Looks like we're good. Lucky this isn't Vietnam. Damn Vietcong would attach bombs to rabbits and then detonate them when they got close to us."

"I didn't know there were even any rabbits that lived in Vietnam." Max part asked, part challenged.

"Bigger than you could imagine, kid. Let's go." Bushwacker responded, apparently not hearing his tone. Max didn't care if he was paranoid or not; the teenager just wanted to find his mother in good health and get back to the old man's house before the old coot started seeing kamikaze planes in the sky.

* * *

It turned out that Sarah was apparently good at three things; making homemade Halloween costumes, getting broomsticks to fly, and playing Twister. They had been playing the same game for almost twenty minutes and despite some unpleasant cracking sounds, neither of them had fallen yet. The only other person she had ever gotten the chance to play the game with was Alex, and she had thought Sarah would be terrible at it.

"You're pretty flexible for an adult." Anna admitted, almost losing her breath.

"I play a lot on my own. My sisters wish not to play with me, so I have to figure out my own games."

Anna spun the arrow on the board that said to put her right hand on green. She managed, just barely.

"And one of those games is training for the flexibility Olympics?"

"What is that?" Sarah asked before spinning the arrow for her own challenge.

"Really? You don't know what the Olympics are?"

It was hard to confirm considering her angle and the woman's long blonde hair, but it looked like Sarah shook her head.

"It's a worldwide competition with different areas and events. Though I don't think flexibility is an actual challenge or area of expertise."

Anna's turn again. And despite the sweat she was working up, the girl was having a fun time. Something about Sarah's lack of connection to the outside world resonated with Anna. She didn't really mind keeping to herself when her brother and she would go out, but it was nice to have a friend who was seemingly more cut off from society than her.

"Sarah, ah… got it! Do you live alone?"

"No, I live with my sisters far out on the edge of the village."

Anna was slow to ask if her sisters were alright. She doubted Sarah would be acting so carefree otherwise, but one never knew.

"Oh yes, I'm sure they are fine. Winifred is very smart, and she can strike people with lightning."

_"Does she mean her sister has a stun gun?"_

"Well I'm glad to hear they're up to the challenge. Not many people can survive in a situation like this. Though I guess if you had a car you could just leave. There's no point in hanging around here if you have no reason to stay. It'll just cut your life short." As if on cue, Sarah fell down on top of Anna, causing a strange sort of draw. The woman got off of her quickly and helped her up.

"Sorry, Anna. But I have to leave. I must find my sisters."

The girl hurried after Sarah, wondering if she had caused the young woman to worry.

"If you want, you can bring them back here. This is probably the safest place in town, besides flying on a broomstick."

As Sarah began to respond there was a knock on the door. The blonde woman froze as if it were death knocking. Anna was somewhat worried as well, but knew it could only be her brother. If he was knocking that meant he'd lost his keys, which lowered the chance that he would be in a good enough mood to let Sarah stay.

"Don't worry; it's my brother. He usually doesn't like strangers, but let me talk to him."

* * *

Max wished he could literally eat his words, because as luck would have it, they finally reached the town hall. To be honest, he had been half-afraid that they would just keep making wrong turns until the end of time, slowly accruing a zombie horde behind them until they ran out of places to go. But he was convinced now; Bushwacker was good at more than just giving lectures on outdated equipment and shooting things an unnecessary number of times.

_"I still didn't need to know how they combated getting their privates infected during the Vietnam War, though." _He thought, still cringing at the recollection of the old man's explanation.

Unfortunately, his mother wasn't anywhere in sight. For that matter, neither were any zombies. And while that didn't always mean they were long gone, at least they wouldn't have to battle their way through a mass of zombies just to see if she was still standing on a truck somewhere.

"You sure she would stay here, kid? I don't see a damn sign of her." Spoke the veteran, once again lowering the M16 into his hands.

"Maybe she managed to jump from a car over the zombies and had to run away. But she wouldn't have gone far. She didn't know where we were going."

"So it would make sense for her to stay here in case you came back. Alright, well let's take a look around. Watch under the cars. There might be some ankle-biters around."

Max nodded his head in agreement and they made their way across the street towards the back parking lot. The teenager couldn't help but notice, with a strange and dark sense of humor, that the traffic light was still changing between its various colors. He knew that it was a machine, but somehow the futility of its ongoing service got to him. Max didn't have a car or anything, so it's not like it made him feel nostalgic. But still, he found his resolve shiver just a bit at the memory of living a normal life compared to what transpired over the last few days. The witches were one thing to deal with, but _this_…

_"Now that I think about it, what will we do about the Sanderson Sisters? Did they manage to survive? And if they did, that means they took the lifeforce of another child. We can't just stand around and let them kill more children. But what can we do in a situation like this?"_

Max took a second, took a breath, and then focused on what he was here to do. His mother had to be around here somewhere, he could feel it. The parking lot had no more corpses lying on the ground, so at the very least he knew she hadn't been pulled from a car's roof and been devoured. He didn't see any signals either, though. That meant that if she _did _escape, it was likely under circumstances where she couldn't hang around to leave a trail of cookie crumbs.

Making sure to watch his feet as he walked past cars, Max felt a growing tension in his mind and ultimately he had to take a moment. The exhausted teenager placed his hands on the side of a car, bent over, and let out a long sigh. "Hey, kid. You give up already?" He heard from a couple yards away. Max raised his head and began to correct Bushwacker when someone popped up inside the car. He shouted in surprise and backed away, and as he did so Bushwacker vaulted over the hood of a car and aimed at the figure. But when Max saw it was his mother he waved his arms and told the vet not to shoot.

His mother unlocked the car door and pretty much threw it open before rushing to Max and hugging him to her. He hugged her back, probably harder than he should have. But all he cared about was that she was alive and safe. She had on some kind of coat, but he could still smell the perfume that she always wore and right now thought it was the best smell in the world.

"Are you alright?! I'm sorry I didn't come back sooner." He apologized. His mother shook her head and told him it was alright. "I don't remember how long I spent jumping from car to car, trying to keep them from grabbing my legs. By the time I managed to get away my legs were so worn out I could barely move. But eventually I got down the street. Once we were out of sight of the parking lot I moved around the block and got in one of the cars to wait for you. I'm glad you came back. I was so worried."

Max was going to respond when Bushwacker interrupted them by snapping open his zippo lighter and igniting a cigar. "I'm sorry to tell you this, ma'am, but it looks like your friends are on their way back."

They turned their heads first to the man, and then in the direction he was looking. He wasn't kidding about her "friends"; there had to be over fifty of them shuffling down the street and the sidewalk, making their way towards the early morning meals. The sun's rays finally stretched over the taller buildings in town, but failed to reach the inhuman creatures. It was as if their evil was repelling light itself.

"If you know of any cars with keys in them, now would be the time to get in one. Otherwise we got to get hoofin'." Spoke the man as the smoke from his cigar rose into the morning sky.

* * *

The clouds looked kind of like plumes rising from a smokestack, but moving across the sky instead of up and through it. Alex knew that there were still other zombies in the area, but he couldn't help but take a moment to appreciate the sight. It amazed him to this day that people could wander about beneath something so beautiful and never stop in awe of it.

_"Oh well, the sky will be there the next time I come out. I have to get back. Anna is probably worried by now. That is if she's still awake."_

He walked faster than normal down their street, noting an absurd humor in the fact that their road was called "Romero Drive", as if the famous zombie movie creator had prepared the way for them.

Alex would have to find a stray crossbow bolt at some point during the day; the young man had lost track of one earlier while firing at a zombie. Alex was a good shot, but the creature had been too far away, and the bolt had crossed an entire intersection; the wind hadn't made it veer off too much, but it had been enough.

_"I'm honestly surprised there are so few of them in the surrounding area. I'd have thought they would at least be gathering in packs by now."_

It was always possible that some big event going on in town had drawn them en masse, but if there was he hadn't heard about it. For that matter, only a few of the zombies he had killed were recognizable to him as neighbors. That meant that many of them were either stuck in their bedrooms, too stupid to escape, or they had gone to some manner of Halloween party. Either way, he would get to dealing with them sooner or later. For now it was time to take a short nap and regain his strength.

Alex approached the door and fished for his keys, but noticed, as he squinted, that there were moving shapes in sky going against the wind. They didn't look like clouds, and for a moment he wondered if they were really witches on broomsticks. Then the zombie hunter shook his head and decided to knock on the door lightly just in case Anna was still awake. He was about to knock again when the door quietly opened. Alex was part grateful and part upset that his little sister was still up, but then the door opened wider and he noticed another surprise. Alexander didn't know if he felt anger or sadness first, but as the veteran of countless life or death struggles gazed at the young girl on the floor he realized it didn't matter.


End file.
